Romania’s opposition United Right Alliance call for referendum to eliminate special pensions

Romania’s center-right opposition parties, USR, PMP, and the Right Force, recently asked president Klaus Iohannis to call a referendum for the elimination of special pensions. The parties, together in the United Right Alliance, gathered 135,000 signatures for this purpose.

They ask that the referendum be held alongside the European parliamentary elections on June 9.

“We have seen that this political class represented by PSD and PNL does not want and cannot eliminate these defiant pensions. The highest of them has reached RON 58,000 (EUR 11,660) per month, while over a million people live with less than RON 1,100 (EUR 221) per month. Special pensioners like Nicolae Ciucă, president of PNL, have a pension of RON 19,000, his special pension was just increased by 13%. We ask that the Romanian people be able to pronounce themselves on this subject that divides Romanian society,” USR president Cătălin Drulă said, cited by Digi24.

"In 2019, the same tenant of the Cotroceni Palace [president Iohannis] proposed, with the agreement of PNL, that alongside the elections for the European Parliament, a referendum for justice should be held, which aimed to stop the red plague's [PSD’s] assault against the independence of justice. That referendum took place. Almost 50% of Romanian citizens with the right to vote participated in the referendum, and they categorically said they want independent justice," said Ludovic Orban.

The Romanian Parliament adopted repeated laws abolishing special pensions, but each law was struck down as unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court, the members of which are appointed by the same Parliament, as well as the president.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Malina Norocea)